Welsh Newspapers

Search 15 million Welsh newspaper articles

Hide Articles List

3 articles on this Page

[No title]

News
Cite
Share

FOR many generations past the middle classes of I" Great Britain have had everything in their own. hands, and they have not neglected to sing their own praises through newspapers, cheap literature, tracts, and otherwise. Mr. Matthew Arnold, & Liberal, was perhaps the first writer of note who, ventured to speak in sarcastic terms of the undo- served praise lavished on them, and to dwell on their philistinism, vulgarity, and hypocritical- show of virtue. How he used to sneer at their sordid and repulsive ideal of "comfort in this world and the next I The Bishop of London, in his late visitation charge, has to a certain extent taken up the same parable. Of one deadly vice- in particular he complains, and without saying. that it is confined to the middle-class or the lower middle-class he hints plainly enough that among people of that condition it is particularly ram- pant. The first condition of a happy marriage, he tells us, is the pre-nuptial purity of those who, are to be married. But in the present instance he is considering rather what follows, and what- ought to follow, marriage. It is impossible for me," he says, to describe with what dismay I view the diminution of the birth-rate, not only in. England, but in the Colonies, and the proved cause to have been, and still to be, the limitation of the birth-rate by artificial means." That coun- try is richest which nourishes the greatest number 1 of noble and happy human beings, and yet we find that the average birth-rate per 1,000 in Great- Britain and Ireland has dropped from 34.3 in 1874- 78 to 29.1 in 1894-98, while in 1901 it had come- down to 28 per 1,000. In the same period, 1894- 98, the birth-rate per 1,000 was, in Austria, 37.3; in Germany, 36.1; in Italy, 34.9; and in Russia, 49.5. The births in London alone have- gone down by about 500 per week. In Australia. the birth-rate has gone down from 41.9 per 1,000 in 1861-65 to 27.3 in 1896-99. The fall in the' British birth-rate (which is now little over half- that of Russia), is not due to a diminution in the- number of marriages, for the marriage rate is in- creasing. It went up from 14.2 in 1876-80 to 15.2 in 1896-1900. Lest any one may be under the impression that the diminution of the birth- rate is in some way counter balanced-lest it should be thought, for instance, that what we lose in quantity we gain in quality-the Bishop quotes some of the greatest scientists and statisticians to, show that the case stands just the other way. Of the convictions recorded in England every year forty per cent, are against young persons under twenty-one years of age, and to make things worse juvenile criminalism is on the increase. He fur- ther points to the fact which we have several .times noticed in this column, that idiocy and- lunacy are steadily increasing, both in England and Wales. Professor Taylor has well said that certain doctrines taught in England some thirty- five years ago have gradually spread like a blight over the MIDDLE CLASS population of the land, and- the true wealth of the nation, the bright-eyed and happy-hearted children," have more or less- gone down before them. It has been completely proved that the cause of all this is deliberate prevention." Well may the Bishop summon alL the forces of his Church to stem what he calls, this gigantic evil," and condemn, as the Church, of Rome does, a sinful practice which, if con- tinued, must eat away the heart, and drain away. the life-blood of our country." People must be- taught, then, the responsibilities which married life entails. There is almost an echo of Matthew Arnold in the following words: It is all part of the miserable gospel of comfort which is the curse- of the present day, and we must learn ourselves. and teach others to live the simpler, harder life our forefathers lived when they made Britain' what it is to-day, and handed down the glorious heritage which, unless we amend our ways, must surely slip from our nerveless fingers to-day." It is really a happy sign to see a dignitary of the Bishop of London's position speaking out clearly and boldly on a question which, although "deH"

Advertising

CONTENTS OF THIS EDITION.